TWILIGHT YEARS TWILIGHT ZONE

 I LOVED the show "The Twilight Zone"  written and narrated by Rod Serling. There would be some weeks when I would be so freaked out after watching it that I couldn't sleep.  It aired in the late 50's when I was in high school and EVERYONE in my school was watching it each week. The previous night's episode would be the main topic of conversation through out the entire building the day following the show.  It was GREAT !!  Ask any Baby Boomer about The Twilight Zone and I guarantee you they will have watched it and can probably still tell you about at least one of the episodes that they remember. 

At the time that The Twilight Zone was debuting on TV I was in my teens and just discovering how great it was to be young and alive.  There was never any thought given to my "Twilight Years". Oh I would daydream and wonder where my life would take me but I never considered life beyond thirty.  As I grew older the bar was raised to forty, then fifty and when I finally found myself in my sixties I stopped thinking ahead.  Every day is considered a gift so I just kick back and enjoy it without wondering what "tomorrow" may bring.  

What I have discovered is that the years between about sixty-five and eighty-five are quite like The Twilight Zone.  

Think about it . . .  as you're aging you set "goals" for yourself. Things like, "When I turn 50 I'm going to start thinking about retirement".   When you turn 60 you start thinking about collecting Social Security and going on Medicare. You begin to think about cleaning out the basement and the attic just in case you decide to sell the house and move to Florida or Arizona.  No more getting up at the crack of dawn to go into work. No more worrying about health insurance. No more day to day grind.  Suddenly life is changing around you and everything that you knew for the past 65 years starts looking quite different. 

Then one day you wake up and realize that you are no longer young. At 65 you enter a stage of your life where you are too old to be considered young but too young to be considered old. 

 You have now entered the Twilight Years Twilight Zone. 

It is at this point of your life when you are like a zipper on a pair of socks.  You exist but you really don't serve a purpose so everyone pretty much ignores you until you either do something stupid or fall apart. At that point your presence will be noted and then just as quickly ignored once again.  This Twilight Zone is disturbing and strange. You will exist here for the next twenty years until you are 85 years old.

Once you turn 85 you suddenly become OLD and are now looked at with some admiration and awe. People say things like, "Wow, you don't look a day over 80", or "So how does it feel to be THAT old?".  You are something of a celebrity among your family and friends especially if you are still physically active and mentally sharp.  You have now emerged the "butterfly" after spending the past twenty years in a cocoon known as TYTZ.  

Some of us will emerge with our wings flapping ready to take flight and others will crawl out on hands and knees and wonder what the hell happened to us and how the hell did we get to this point of our lives.  

But at the very least we will once again return to the world where we are recognized as being special. Even though we really had nothing to do with it. Except for entering the Twilight Years Twilight Zone and exiting on the other side still alive and functioning.